


Small Cheer and Great Welcome

by Mara



Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 06:44:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5698834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/pseuds/Mara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shelby is down in the dumps, but Tyler's there to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Cheer and Great Welcome

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gingayellow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingayellow/gifts).



Shelby did her best to not stomp her feet as she entered the Ranger's lair under the museum, but she had a feeling she hadn't entirely succeeded as every head turned to look at her as her Energem snapped into its charging station.

"What?" she asked, hands on her hips.

Murmurs of "errr, nothing" were immediate and Shelby stomped over to the couch in the corner, plopping down with a sigh and closing her eyes. Maybe she should have gone somewhere else, but for some reason, it felt better to be here than somewhere else all alone. Clearly this team thing was going to her head, she thought.

She was surprised that it only took a few minutes for someone to brave her wrath and she felt the dip as someone sat next to her on the couch.

"Shelby?" Tyler's voice was hesitant.

"Mmm?" Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, not really wanting to see his expression right now. 

But when their eyes met, he smiled brilliantly. "There you are."

"Here I am." She managed a wan smile in return.

"Now maybe you can tell me what happened."

The little lift in mood immediately vanished and her gaze skittered away from his face to stare over his shoulder at a lab bench. "It was nothing. Just a customer in the café."

"Ah."

She stared fixedly past him, hoping he'd get the message.

"And what did this customer do?"

She didn't want to rant or complain about the woman and her endless stupid demands and complaints. She didn't want Tyler to know how petty she was and she really didn't want to admit how rude she'd ended up being. She shifted in her seat so she wasn't looking at Tyler, just at the nearest rock wall. "Just the usual. You know what it's like."

"If it was just the usual, you wouldn't look so upset."

Ignoring the little warm glow in her stomach at his concern, she shook her head. "It really wasn't anything. I just couldn't do anything to make this customer happy."

"That's rough." He settled closer to her, shoulders touching. "I really hate when that happens."

"And then I lost my temper," she said softly, not even sure why she said it.

"Mmm."

Twining her hands together, she stared down at her fingers. "I shouldn't have done that."

"Lost your temper at a customer? Probably not, but you're only human. Don't beat yourself up over it." He nudged her shoulder with his own.

"It's not…"

"Not what?"

"Never mind."

Tyler chuckled. "Hey, you can't tease me like that."

Shelby felt her face getting warmer. "I don't want to talk about it."

"It sounds like you kind of do and kind of don't." Tyler was quiet for a long moment. "I wish you'd tell me. It…well, I feel bad that you feel bad about something and I want to help." He groaned. "That sounds dumb."

"No, it doesn't." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "It's…nice."

He smiled and her stomach felt warm again. "So…?"

"Oh. Yeah." Shelby held her hands together even more tightly. "The lady was really rude but…"

Tyler just waited.

The words burst out of her. "If I can't handle something stupid like working in a café, then how am I going to handle grad school? Grad school's going to be so much harder and what if I fail?" She gulped, trying not to cry.

Tyler let out a breath. "That's what was worrying you?"

The dismissal in his tone felt like a punch from one of Sledge's monsters. "Well, I'm sorry for bothering you with my stupid worries after you—"

"Whoa!" Tyler grabbed her arm. "You're not bothering me and it's not stupid. I didn't mean that."

Shelby tightened her lips and stared harder at the floor.

"Hey, what I meant was that I can help."

"What?" Startled, she looked up at him.

"Not with grad school. I'm saying this all so badly." His forehead wrinkled. "You're just mixing up skill sets. Being good at science and critical thinking doesn't mean you're automatically going to be good at customer service. Maybe you're not a people person, but that doesn't mean you're not going to _rock_ the paleontology world."

She stared at him.

"Like…do you think Kendall is good at customer service?" He waved a hand at the Purple Ranger, who was loudly arguing with Ivan about something.

Shelby swallowed her snicker. "No."

"But you can't deny she's super smart and good at her job." He squeezed her arm. "And she gets away with not being great with people by being just that good at what she does. You'll do the same."

"You think I'll be good at it."

"I _know_ you're going to be an amazing paleontologist. We all know that." His voice was filled with pride.

"Tyler…thanks."

"You're welcome. Any time." He smiled at her.

Shelby paused, replaying the conversation in her mind before scowling at Tyler. "Wait, what do you _mean_ I'm not a people person!"

Eyes widening, Tyler said, "Uh oh." Then he jumped off the couch and ran to hide behind a confused Koda. Shelby chased him around the lab until Kendall made them stop.

By the time they both collapsed back on the couch laughing, Shelby could hardly remember why she'd been so upset in the first place.

\--end--


End file.
